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The story
CD sales were suspended at CUTIE STREET’s Nippon Budokan concerts after a string of illegally dumped CDs was discovered, before sales resumed on the afternoon of the 25th switched entirely to a reservation-only system. On 5ch, criticism piled up against the “multiple-purchase” business model itself, in which fans are pushed to buy many copies of the same CD for the bonus items, while some also questioned Oricon’s chart methodology for continuing to use CD sales as its key metric.
Sankei Sports, 2026/08/26 14:20
The official X account of idol group CUTIE STREET announced on the 26th that CD sales at their ongoing Tokyo Nippon Budokan concerts (running from the 25th) would resume via reservation sales. In a post that morning, the group had warned: “Yesterday, multiple instances of illegally dumped CDs were confirmed at Nippon Budokan and nearby facilities, so we will be suspending CD sales for the time being. Please absolutely refrain from illegal dumping.”
Just after 1 p.m., a follow-up post on X read: “Starting at 13:30, we will resume the CD sales and lottery event that had been temporarily paused. Please note that from the resumption of sales onward, all CDs will be sold strictly through reservation. Participation-prize postcards and scratch tickets will be handed out at the sales counter.”
Source: sanspo.com / Original article here
What people said
Pretty sure that was a different group…
though I'm not really sure
These guys are the "You, More Than Ice Cream!" group, right?
That's the "Candy Tune" bunch, that one (50-year-old man)
Yeah, basically that.
then scrambled to resume after getting an earful from the authorities.
but isn't the real problem the business model built around getting one person to buy multiple copies?
Seriously, they need to stop selling it that way.
I genuinely don't get why this isn't being cracked down on.
What a waste of resources.
Some groups have already shifted to that — something called "M-Card."
But TV and other media still announce CD sales rankings,
and since that stays the go-to metric, groups like this probably won't disappear anytime soon.
Honestly think it's about time Oricon stopped centering its song rankings on CD sales numbers.
Though FYI, RaMu herself sells sets of multiple copies of the same photobook bundled with bonus items.
Ah I see, that RaMu Moka thing
CDs bundled with bonus-entry rights
You're the company president, aren't you lmaooo
https://pbs.twimg;.com/media/HQndScIbwAA1uFe.jpg
https://pbs.twimg;.com/media/HQndScUaoAA1Jwj.jpg
If they're unopened you can resell them — that's basically alchemy.
Honestly they should just sell the raffle ticket alone…
so it's got to be one of those two
The correct answer is the "Sorry for Being Cute" group
Streaming and the actual audio source aren't the same thing, you know
Just saw a post on X saying KAWAII LAB hasn't enabled streaming yet —
apparently it's CD and vinyl only
The Noodle-Draining Dance
"You, More Than Choco Mint"
I can't tell these groups apart (´・ω・`)
Could be wrong, but I think the song with the ice cream line only had about 3 members
Honestly, other than the top one, I don't even know their songs
For real?
So nobody wants the music, huh
Just sell the bonus items already
But then it wouldn't count toward CD sales —
this is the devilish business model Akimoto (Yasushi, the AKB48 producer) created
Actually, if you're gonna throw it away, just give it to me
This isn't a wafer though
What would you even do with it
Background and Key Points
CUTIE STREET is one of the newer idol groups on the “chika idol” circuit run by KAWAII LAB (an offshoot label associated with the same idol-industrial machinery Yasushi Akimoto, of AKB48 fame, is credited with formalizing). Nippon Budokan is the arena idol groups traditionally treat as a milestone venue, so a multi-night run there is a genuine career marker. The economic model underpinning the CD sales is the “multiple-purchase” scheme: each disc is a vehicle for a bundled extra — a handshake or lottery ticket, a raffle entry, a bonus postcard — rather than the music itself, incentivizing fans to buy dozens of identical copies. Because Oricon’s charts still weight physical CD units heavily, and TV shows report those rankings, groups have a direct commercial reason to keep selling this way even as digital and streaming options exist elsewhere in the industry (posters note KAWAII LAB itself reportedly has no streaming yet).
The thread’s disagreement isn’t over whether dumping CDs is bad — nobody defends the litter — but over where blame belongs: several posters (8, 18) argue the mass-dumping is a predictable symptom of a business model built to make one person buy many copies of the same CD, while others focus on individual fans as the wrongdoers for tossing content the group’s staff worked on.
What the thread never engages with is the regulatory angle: Japan doesn’t currently have a specific law barring this bundling practice, so “someone should crack down on this” (29) is aspirational rather than describing an existing legal remedy. Readers unfamiliar with the format may also assume the dumped CDs are literal trash rather than functionally-unwanted packaging around a paid raffle ticket, which is the point several posters (71, 93) are making with the Bikkuriman-wafer comparison.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary of the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “CUTIE STREET Resumes CD Sales, Suspended Over Illegal Dumping Near Budokan: “All Sales Will Now Be Reservation-Only”.”
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